Analyst Sheffield: Trump Too Risky for Mainstream Republicans

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He's a billionaire real-estate tycoon, a successful TV star and is fearless in expressing his opinion on domestic and foreign issues — but Donald Trump will probably never run for president, a top analyst at Forbes predicts.

"He has amazing name recognition. He is a household brand," social policy analyst Carrie Sheffield said Tuesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.

"If you look at his Twitter following he actually has more Twitter followers than Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Mitt Romney.''

In addition, Trump's criticism of the Affordable Care Act "rings true for a lot of people in Middle America,'' she added.

"But that all being said, he's never held elected office and if you look at the Republican base and the Republican 'establishment,' they're pretty risk averse.

"They want to go with someone who has held elected office, who has been a public official and he has not done that at all.''

Trump's immense wealth — some place his worth at $3.9 billion — could also be an issue, although less so than it was for Romney in 2012, according to Sheffield.

"It certainly backfired for Mitt Romney. In 2012, Romney's wealth became a liability,'' she said.

"The climate is a little bit different now. People are now realizing what Obamanomics means for the average person.''

Trump also hurt his credibility by making a huge issue out of whether President Barack Obama was born in the United States, she believes.

"If Donald Trump wants to run for president, he should probably go for something lower first and see how he does in lower elected office. Free advice,'' Sheffield said.

"He has a loose mouth, which is great for TV. I mean he is a great entertainer … ['You're fired!' is a] household phrase and he could use that all the time — but I don't know if you want to run foreign policy in such a way.